Thank you Dean, I heard about it Saturday but was hoping it was a rumor.

I'd guess that everyone who paid attention to Mark's writings knew suicide was practically imminent.  He knew it too, that's the way he wanted it.  


I thought more people here knew him, that's kinda sad. Some will check his site now, & think "Why didn't I know about this guy, where has he been - I SHOULD have known him!", & that's the sadist part of all.
Most members will never understand what they've missed, or the caliber of his writing.
Whether you liked him, disagreed with him, or outright hated him, you were always aware that there was "more" (A lot more) to him than 99.9% of the people you'll ever meet in your life. I've only "respected" about ten people in my life, and he was one of them.
A lot of people are very (sometimes painfully) aware that alcoholism often leads to suicide, & they'll pop judge him, & say it's as simple as that.     I won't .

No one is very likely to understand that there ARE men in the world who demand the right to determine [u]when[/u] their lifes are over. I've respected his opinion since he used to post on AOL's "guntalk" [i]a long time ago[/i] (whether I agreed or not),,,,,,,, and I'll respect his final choice.
 

 
His favorite quote won't make things any clearer, it might even convince people he was a drunk, depressed, suicidal nut.... but he was the most insightful, & [u]sober[/u] person I've ever known.  
Mark, you'll be missed more than you ever knew - RIP

Quote
[b] "But the third sister, who is also the youngest! Hush! Whisper whilst we talk of her! Her kingdom is not large, or else no flesh should live; but within that kingdom all power is hers. Her head, turreted like that of Cybele, rises almost beyond the reach of sight. She droops not, and her eyes rising so high might be hidden by distance. But, being what they are, they cannot be hidden; through the treble veil of crepe which she wears, the fierce light of a blazing misery, that rests not for matins nor for vespers, for noon of day or moon of night, for ebbing or for flowing tide, may be read from the very ground. She is the defier of God. She is also the mother of lunacies and the suggestress of suicides. Deep lie the roots of her power, but narrow is the nation she rules. For she can approach only those in whom a profound nature has been unheaved by central convulsions, in whom the heart trembles and the brain rocks under conspiracies of tempest from without and tempest from within. Madonna moves with uncertain steps, fast or slow, but still with tragic grace. Our Lady of Sighs creeps timidly and stealthily. But this youngest sister moves with incalculable motions, bounding, and with a tiger's leaps; She carries no key, for though coming rarely amongst men, she storms all doors at which she is permitted to enter at all."[/b]

-- Thomas de Quincey [i](who was doubtless tasting opium at the time)[/i]
from Suspiria de Profundis